Little Bright Star – A Ranger Tale Of New York
by The Midnight Man
Summary: It is the end of 1988, and the Rescue Rangers are going to have their first Christmas together. But while this holiday reminds Gadget of her immediate past, someone seems to wreak havoc in the city. It's more than one case for the Rescue Rangers.
1. Chapter 1

**Little Bright Star**

_A Ranger Tale Of New York_

**Chapter 1: There's Something About Christmas Time**

It was late Sunday afternoon, but around that very particular time of the year, the days were fairly short, so it was almost dark outside. A chilly wind blew through the city, the people were dressed appropriately for the freezing late fall weather with their scarfs and jackets or coats. But somehow, in a way one can see only once a year, their mood wasn't pushed down by what the season brought with itself. There was something special in their hearts, a unique kind of warmth and cheerfulness. The lights and decorations which had been installed on buildings, in parks, along the streets, and especially inside the many shops and stores over the week added to that wonderful feeling one only experiences by the time when the old year is closing in on its own end. And the second-last year of the decade had just a few weeks left.

Three men, however, did not feel like so many of the people around them when they left the shop they had just been in. For they left the shop in handcuffs, and apart from the street lights, the scene was not illuminated by seasonal decorations yet, but instead by the lights on top of the police cars standing in front of the shop. Two officers shoved the men into the back of one of the cars.

The short, red-headed one shook his head. "Really, how can one break into a book shop now, Kirby?"

"Well, Muldoon," Officer Kirby replied, "perhaps they needed the money."

"If they needed money, they should've waited until the Christmas business is over," Officer Muldoon said. "The cashier would've been bursting with cash by then."

"But when the Christmas business is over, Christmas is over, too, and you don't need money for presents anymore," Officer Kirby explained and shut the rear door of the police car. "Hey Sarge, can you believe these fellas claim they were defeated by mice?"

"Mice?" Sergeant Spinelli didn't hear this for the first time. In fact, he had heard it a few times that year, but never in any of the more than 20 years he had spent in the New York Police Department. At least he couldn't remember he had heard it before, but since that year's summer, he had been told this so unusually often that he started believing in a fashion trend among the outlaws in the city. "Are they crooked enough to steal each other's excuses for being busted now?"

Like so many legends, this one did have a grain of truth. From their hiding on one of the lowest book shelves, two mice watched the scene with satisfaction, and so did a fly and two chipmunks. It had indeed been them who had stopped the attempted burglary. They had defended the cashier and everything else that was of any notable value for thieves, they had even fixed and activated the alarm system which the burglars had rendered unusable, and ultimately, they had forced the crooks to surrender just in time when the police arrived.

For the chipmunk in the aviator jacket and the fedora hat who had led the spontaneous operation, a dream had come true. Charles Maplewood, called Chip by his friends, had dreamt of a career as a private investigator for a long time, a dream he had believed was out of reach for the tiny rodent that he was. But a few months ago, he and his best friend Dale Oakmont had been drawn into one of the biggest criminal cases the city had seen for decades. They had met new friends with whom they had formed the crime-fighting and rescue team which as a matter of fact had done more on that particular case than the police themselves. Case after case had followed, all of which were solved successfully, and although the Rescue Rangers had never joined the police, they had managed to carry on the tradition of Chip and Dale's friend and mentor, the retired police dog Plato.

Chip leaned against a book. "I can't believe it. Isn't Christmas the time when everyone tries to be good and nice to each other?"

"It's still a long time 'til Christmas, pally," Monterey Jack reminded him. The burly mouse of Australian origin and with the corresponding accent had been the first to join Chip and Dale on their first case together with his old buddy, the housefly Zipper. "Besides, crime knows no seasons. Y'know, that reminds me o' th' time when I clashed with that group of Easter bunnies in pinstripe suits in Naples."

"Maybe that was their way of 'being good,'" Dale supposed. "They're crooks after all. Maybe bad is good for them."

"Golly, Dale," Gadget said, "how can bad be good? That's a contradiction in itself. Then again, what we did was certainly good, and what the police did was good, too, but it was bad for them. On the other hand, I don't believe they'd define a burglary or any other crime as good, criminals or not." Gadget Hackwrench was the fifth member of the team that was named Rescue Rangers later, and the last one to join them. She had lost her father, a good friend of Monterey Jack's, a good two years ago, and from then on, she had spent more than a year all alone in the place where she grew up, the wreck of a bomber plane from World War II which she had turned into a high-security area. It took someone like Chip, Dale, Monty, and Zipper to make it past the deadly traps she had installed and bring her back into something that resembled a life much more closely. Gadget was the perfect combination of beauty and brains, and Chip and Dale both couldn't take their eyes off of her. But a dark past like hers couldn't be shaken off so easily. She picked up a small tinfoil star that had fallen down during the recent battle and looked at her blurred self as though she was holding a mirror. "No, crime is never good," she continued, "especially around Christmas..." She fell silent again, sat down on the edge of the shelf, and stared at the star which she held in her hands, watching her own face turn into a frown.

"Gadget?" Chip asked. "Gadget, is something wrong?"

The blond mouse looked up and at her team mate. "What? Oh... er..."

Outside, the police prepared to leave. Officer Kirby moved the searchlight on the car he was sitting in away from the shop, and it happened to illuminate another shop on the other side of the street and a model airplane in particular before he switched it off.

The plane caught Gadget's attention. She laid the star back onto the floor, got up again, and climbed aboard the self-made aircraft of hers which mostly consisted of a discarded bleach bottle and a red balloon. "Golly, I've got some ideas for upgrades on the Rangerplane. Let's fly back." But no smile returned to her beautiful face.

Wondering what was going on, Chip turned to Monty who shrugged and said, "I dunno either what's up with th' sheila, Chipper. Th' last time I saw 'er before I met you fellas, she was four years old. A lot must've 'appened since then."

Monty was about to head for the Rangerplane, too, when Chip held him back. "Of course something happened since then," he said with a lowered voice, almost whispering, so that Gadget would not hear what he said. "Remember what she told us about her father."

"Geegaw..." Monterey Jack took off his aviator cap. He never knew what Geegaw Hackwrench had meant to his daughter Gadget when she grew up, but he knew that his old fellow still meant a lot to him. They had parted after a nasty quarrel on the isle of Zanzibar, a quarrel which Monty had caused himself and felt sorry for, and that was the last time they had met each other. He remembered Geegaw as a nice guy, and he believed he had always been a good father to Gadget. "Too-ra-loo, I understand what ya mean, Chip." He was serious. He was always serious when he called Chip by that name. "Li'l Gadget must've spent 'er last two Christmases all alone."

"Poor Gadget." Chip looked at the mouse who kept herself busy with the pre-flight check. "She has always been so cheerful, she shouldn't be sad on Christmas."

Dale put on a grin and stomped ahead. "Well, I can cheer her up in no time!" But Zipper flew in his way, motioned him to stop, and told him not to rush it.

"Zipper's right, pally," Monty said, "we need ta be more careful an' more tactful with 'er. Even I dunno what's tickin' inside 'er 'ead. Or inside 'er 'eart. But I'm afraid there's a lot in there that can break if ya don't 'andle it properly."

The chipmunks both stared at their Australian companion. This was a way they would never have expected him to speak. But then again, Gadget was the daughter of his best friend. And over the past months, Monty had tried what he could to be a replacement father for her whenever he saw the need arise, because after all, of all the Rescue Rangers, he was the one she was the most familiar with. And if there was one thing they had learned from Monty, it was that there was no arguing with him, especially when he was right. And he was right.

Before they could answer, Monty added, "An' lads, please try not ta fight over 'er an' try ta catch 'er attention fer now. I don't mean ignore 'er, but don't annoy 'er by 'ittin' on 'er all day, alright?"

"Alright, Monty," they agreed, albeit not quite willingly.

While Monty and Zipper returned to the Rangerplane, Chip went and picked up the small tinfoil star which Gadget had found. Dale watched and asked, "What are ya doin' with that star, Chipper?"

"I thought it'd be a nice Christmas decoration for the Headquarters," Chip answered and stashed the star away in his jacket.

With the team of five aboard, the Rangerplane flew back to the big oak tree with the Rescue Rangers Headquarters in it. Gadget steered the craft into the hangar, and after everyone had gotten off it, she stood and stared at it silently. The others didn't leave the hangar yet, so they noticed her discomfort.

"Is anything up, Gadget?" Chip finally asked. He felt that someone had to say something, be it because it was something Gadget would want to talk about, be it just to break the silence.

Gadget looked away from the Rangerplane and at Chip. "No... no. I... must get working. Excuse me." With these words, she ran out of the hangar, and before anyone could follow her, she was upstairs.

Chip wondered, "Did I say anything wrong?"

"Ya meant it well, Chipper," Monty replied, "but I think this is a difficult time fer 'er."

"Well, if we can't help it," Chip suggested, "let's do something productive."

"Like go an' watch TV." Dale went ahead, and Chip, Monty, and Zipper followed. They had just solved a case, defeated a gang of burglars, and now they needed to relax.

The four male Rangers sat down in front of the custom-made television set. A few, mostly seasonal commercials were aired, and the news was to follow. However, Monty didn't remain seated for long. He got up and headed out of the main room.

"Oh," Dale shouted, "can ya get me somethin' from the kitchen?"

"I'm not headin' fer the kitchen, mate," Monty told him, "I'm lookin' after Gadget. Maybe she'll talk with me. In a sense, we're on a new case."

"Making Gadget happy?" Dale asked. And Chip expressed his doubts, "How is this a case?" He liked the idea, of course, and he would loved to achieve it by himself, but how did it qualify as a case for the Rescue Rangers?

"It's a case all right, Chipper me lad, an' a tough one no less."

"Okay, I see your point, Monty," Chip said and turned back to the TV. "Let's talk about it after the news."

Monty went on, but when he had almost disappeared in the hallway, he stopped as Chip called him back. "Monty, wait! Come back here!"

He poked his head back into the main room. "What's up, Chipper?"

Chip pointed at the TV screen. "I think we've got a real case."

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Too Hot For The Season**

Monterey Jack jumped back onto the horseshoe-shaped sofa. "A case? Crikey, what's goin' on this time?"

"You know that frozen pond we came by earlier today?" Chip asked. "The one with the ice skaters on it?" It had been indeed cold enough for some ponds to develop an ice layer strong enough to carry a number of people.

"Why, what's with that pond?"

It was TV news anchorman Stan Blather who answered Monty's question. "...Eyewitnesses as well as victims of the incident reported that the ice suddenly began to melt, eventually broke, and disappeared entirely within less than a minute. Some said they saw steam rise up from the ice. The pond is shallow enough to stand in, so there were no casualties. But some of the ice skaters who broke into the pond said the water was unusually warm while the surrounding air hadn't warmed up significantly."

Zipper supposed that some sort of heated waste water might have been pumped into the pond and raised the water temperature.

Chip shook his head. "Nobody would dispose of their waste water in a pond accessible to the public, especially not one with ice skaters on it. And even then, I don't think you can melt that much ice in such a short time."

Dale had an idea, too. "A heat wave, maybe?"

"No," Chip said, "according to the people there, the air was as cold as always, Stan Blather didn't mention any other open air ice skating rink or water surface having melted, and when this happened, we were out there," he pointed at the front door, "and would have felt any heat wave."

"There are no geysers or 'ot springs under this city either," Monty said, "so what else can it be?"

"I'm out of ideas," Chip admitted. "We could ask Gadget, maybe she's got a clue."

"D'ya really think we should disturb 'er?"

"What other choice do we have, other than going there and taking a look ourselves? Sooner or later, we'll need her technical advice, for this can impossibly have a natural cause."

The four went upstairs, and Chip knocked on the door of Gadget's workshop.

"I'm busy," Gadget's voice sounded through the closed door. It did not sound so much like she was working on anything, though.

"Gadget," Chip shouted, "we need your advice."

"My advice about what?" she asked.

"Imagine a frozen pond in the park with ice skaters on it."

"Yes," Gadget replied, "it's cold enough for water to freeze solid enough to carry a lot of people. Depending on where the water is, of course." As if she suspected a hidden invitation from one of the chipmunks to go ice skating with him, she added, "What do you want to know then?"

Chip went on. "We've seen that particular pond earlier today. Now imagine that the water melts."

"...and the ice skaters break into the water. Their fault if they don't notice rising temperatures and react in time."

"The air didn't get any warmer, Gadget. Unlike the water, by the way. And the ice melted away completely in under 60 seconds."

The door unlocked and opened, and Gadget looked at the guys with wide open eyes. "Golly, under 60 seconds, you said? I'd say that's impossible if it wasn't because nothing is."

"How can it be possible, then, if it is possible?" Chip inquired.

"Well, you can't heat up the water from underneath so that the ice melts that quickly without boiling the whole pond. And you said the air wasn't warmed up at all. And I doubt that anyone installed heat pipes in the ice. So all I can imagine is a form of electromagnetic waves, something like microwaves, warming up the ice and the water below it, but not the air above it. But it's difficult to apply electromagnetic waves that precisely."

Chip scratched the back of his head right below his fedora hat. "We need to go to the pond and examine it ourselves, I think."

"That'd be the best," Gadget said, "but... don't count me in."

This surprised Chip as well as his teammates. "You won't come with us? We might need your knowledge, Gadget!"

"Sorry, but I can't go with you. I'm... busy here already. Just... go ahead." Gadget gazed at her friends for a few seconds before she stepped back and closed the door again.

"In that case..." Chip turned and headed for the hangar, "it'll be us guys only."

"But Chip," Dale complained, "how come Gadget may stay here on a case an' I may not?"

"Because she might really be busy with an invention or so," Chip explained.

"Hey, I might be busy, too!"

"I wonder how your way of being so busy that you have to stay here will help the Rangers," Chip commented, "like Gadget's inventions help us."

Monty gave as an advice, "Jes' grant 'er 'er timeout when she needs one, mate." The four Rangers had reached the hangar meanwhile, he shut the door behind himself and, since Gadget hearing him would be even less likely then, went on, "Might be 'ard ta understand fer ya lads, but she might not get along well with th' season an' wish ta lock 'erself away 'til it's over."

Dale did indeed not understand. "Aw c'mon, Monty, how can one not like Christmas?"

"I'm with Dale for once," Chip said. "Aren't all those Christmas decorations supposed to cheer you up rather than sadden you?" He waved his hand to somewhere beyond the hangar front door he had just opened. Deep inside, he wished he could share this experience with Gadget, only him and her.

Winding up the Rangerplane's clockwork drive for another flight, Monty asked the chipmunk boys, "Didja ever spend Christmas alone? An' I mean all alone with nowhere ta go, with no-one ta meet, not even yer own parents?"

"Ummm..." Dale said while thinking, "nope."

"Neither did I," Chip said.

Monty sat down on the pilot's seat and put his goggles over his eyes. "Now imagine that 'appened ta ya twice. Without a chance of ever gettin' any different."

Chip understood Gadget's situation the better, the more thought he put into it. "Right, where she lived wasn't exactly a neighborhood. I mean, I didn't even know someone was living in any of these old plane wrecks until you took us there. Geegaw must have taken her with him on some of his flights, I reckon..."

"That 'e did fer sure, mate," Monty confirmed. "'e couldn't leave 'er alone when 'e flew somewhere, so she came with 'im as soon as she was old enough."

"And when she had lost him," Chip concluded, "not only wasn't he there anymore to spend the holidays with her, she also didn't know where to go. She had no choice but to stay at home. If it wasn't for us, she'd still be there in the plane wreck all alone. I guess she has to get used to being in good company for Christmas. Or in any company, for that matter."

When everybody had boarded, the Rangerplane took off and made its way through the park until it arrived at the pond. Monty landed it behind a row of bushes which he considered a sufficient hiding place. A police line kept humans away from the pond, but rodents and insects were able to pass unhindered, besides, the Rescue Rangers were there for the same reason as the police, they had to investigate.

To their surprise, however, the pond was freezing again. Apart from the lack of thickness of the ice which wasn't solid enough to support the weight of humans yet, there was little evidence that it had been gone entirely about half an hour before.

"Oh boy oh boy," Dale cheered, "the ice is back!" He grabbed a small twig which happened to be shaped similar to a hockey stick. "Hey Chipper, what about a little ice hockey match, one on one?"

He wanted to run onto the ice, but he didn't move forward a single inch. The reason was Monterey Jack who held the back of his jacket. "Easy, mate. The ice might not carry ya yet. We're only four already now, so if the ice breaks an' ya turn into an icicle down there, we'll run outta Rangers fer tanight."

"Monty is right, Dale," Chip said, "and we don't have time now. Zipper, have a look if you can find anything that's out of the ordinary and that might have to do with the melting ice!"

The fly saluted and started on a flight around the pond. On his way, he overheard two officers who talked about reopening the pond when the ice is thick enough again. But while he heard them speak, he noticed something unusual. Tiny clouds of steam built up upon the ice. He stopped in mid-air and looked out onto the pond. It appeared as if the ice had begun to melt again, but to be sure, he had to examine the phenomenon a bit closer, so he flew to the middle of the pond. The air was as cold as usually, but the steam was fairly warm. He descended to what ice was still left, but he didn't dare to land. There was a thin layer of water upon the ice, and this water was almost boiling. He figured this was far enough out of the ordinary and returned to his friends to tell them what he saw.

"Boilin' water on ice?" It was hard for Monty to believe. "I'd say y've gone bonkers, Zipper pally, if I didn't see it with me own eyes, but blimey, I do see it!"

Dale stared to where the ice used to be, and where the dissolving steam revealed a surface of wholly liquid water. "An' I wanted to play ice hockey out there. You wouldn't have a frozen chipmunk now, but a cooked one."

"Careful, mate," Monty warned him, "th' water might still be freezin' cold down below."

"I wish Gadget had invented us some scuba gear," Chip said, "then I could dive in there and see if you're right, Monty, and to which depth the water has been heated. Then we might have a clue as to what caused—"

Right above Chip, a light went out which caused him to stop talking. He was about to continue when he noticed that all lights along the way flashed up brightly and then fell dark one by one. At the end of the row, the tiny light bulbs on a small Christmas tree were the last to fall victim to the sudden darkness. "This is not a coincidence anymore!" he said.

"What is it then?" Dale wondered.

"A case! It has been one from the very start! Back to the Rangerplane, everyone, we need to find out what or who wreaks all this havoc!"

The four Rangers piled into their trademark aircraft and took off into the dark evening sky, hoping to find some evidence from a higher point of view. They flew a few circles around the pond, each of them larger than the previous one, and when they didn't find anything significant, they began to search the greater surroundings.

Their search seemed to have come to a sudden end when they spotted a fire in the park. There was a small fenced place where Christmas trees were sold. The makeshift shop was closed, the owner had gone, and the fences were thoroughly locked with chains, but one of the trees was aflame. After what they had seen the past few minutes, the Rescue Rangers were barely surprised to not see anyone who could have caused the fire.

To allow for a closer look at the most recent crime scene, Monty steered the Rangerplane right into the fenced area, but Chip warned him, "Monty, I wouldn't fly so close to the trees!"

"Why not? It's not that we're flyin' straight through th' flames, Chipper." Monty had just said this when the tree nearest to the Rangerplane caught fire. Within a split-second, the entire tree was ablaze.

"Crikey," Monty shouted, "someone tries ta roast us like a coupla maroons!"

Chip gave the Australian mouse the order to do what he would have done anyway. "Get us outta here, Monty, and quickly before we end up in the middle of a forest fire!"

"All right, mates! Hold on!" Monty accelerated the Rangerplane to its maximum speed and tried to find the fastest way out, but soon discovered the fastest way went past the tree which was the first to burn. "Prepare fer one—hot—flight!" he said as he pulled back the bottle cap yoke to gain height and make it over the fence.

The very moment that the Rangerplane passed the first burning tree, the flames reached the tree gum which quickly ignited. The tree exploded in a spectacular ball of fire, dust, and shards of wood. The pressure wave pushed the Rangerplane uncontrollably upward. Wooden shrapnel flew all around the craft, and some pieces hit it from below or even tore through the wings. The Rangers were only saved by the rigid inner construction which held back those fragments that managed to pierce the hull and the red balloon against which the fuselage was pressed on its rapid flight upward.

When gravity got hold of the Rangerplane again, it was flying high above the park. It was almost a Christmas miracle that the balloon hadn't been damaged, the wings had been rendered unable to hold the plane in the air. Monty blocked the fast-running clockwork drive, and the Rangers took a glance down. A third whole tree had started to burn, and four more had caught fire in the explosion.

"Wowie-zowie," Dale said, "I didn't know that Christmas trees can explode like dynamite." He had just said these words when the second tree blew up.

Monty released the drive again to gain some more distance between the Rangerplane and the burning trees. "It's th' tree gum," he explained. "Th' gum o' certain trees explodes when ya put it on fire."

Chip watched the second explosion from a safe distance. "And I didn't know that this applies also to ordinary pines which are used as Christmas trees all over the world. If I think of the many trees that carry real candles with real flames around this time of the year..." All of a sudden, he spotted something or rather somebody on the fire escape of a nearby building which was soon to be demolished. "Monty," he said, "fly us to that house over there, I think I've seen someone we know."

The closer they came to the building, the more Chip's suspicion turned into solid proof. On the top steel platform stood a very short man. He hardly had any hair left on his head, and he wore glasses and a lab coat. He was busy operating a strange, roughly doghouse-sized contraption like out of the science-fiction B-movie which Dale loved to watch—and cackling madly. "Muahahahahaha! My Microwave Adaptive Range Christmas Obliterator works like a charm! Ice melts in no time, light bulbs burn out, and harmless Christmas trees turn into dangerous weapons! Oh, this is finally gonna be a Christmas for me to enjoy for a change!"

"Nimnul," the Rangers said his name in unison.

The Rangerplane touched down on the roof right above the mad scientist, and the four heroes got off and went to the edge of the roof to see what he was up to.

"Y'know," Monty commented the situation, "I thought fer a moment that I'd taken a wrong turn somewhere after the explosion, an' we'd ended up in a Dr. Seuss story."

"No, this is real," Chip said, "almost too real. But Dr. Seuss wouldn't have written it much different."

Below, Professor Nimnul worked on the controls of his device. "So what shall I test MARCO on now? Aaaah, now there's a wonderful new target!"

Chip watched as Nimnul brought his thumb to a red button which looked like it was the trigger. "What's he aiming at?"

Zipper said Nimnul won't fire his machine off as long as he can help it. He raced down to the professor and flew round after round around his head.

Nimnul was not only distracted sufficiently, but also confused. "A fly? At this time of the year?" He waved his hands about, trying in vain to get the insect that was buzzing around him, but stopped when he figured it wasn't worth the effort. His right hand went down again and hit the trigger.

A cloud of black smoke rose up, but from underneath Nimnul's nose instead of anywhere in or near the park. "Hey," he complained, "you're not supposed to destroy yourself! You're supposed to destroy something out there!" He opened the contraption and examined the damage. "Great. The main coil is fried. Now I have to drive to Arkham and get a new one, and I won't get one before tomorrow. Might as well cease the experiments for today." He closed the machine again and mounted a cover over it. Ironically, the cover looked like a Christmas present with its decorative paper and the big green bow on top. A tag was tied to the bow with a name written on it: MARCO. Nimnul took the closed box with him into the building.

Chip was relieved. "That breakdown bought us some time. It'll take him forever to get to Arkham tomorrow and another forever to get back, what with all the traffic clogging the city as of late. We might as well fly home for now, but we have to be back tomorrow to take care of this thing as long as Nimnul is away. We'll have plenty of time at least."

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Roasting On An Open Backfire**

The next morning came, and with it the mission at Nimnul's hiding-place. However, Dale, Monty, and Zipper had decided to have an opulent breakfast first. Chip had little choice but to agree, also because he realized that he couldn't count on Nimnul leaving early enough, and Monty's advice to not sit around outside Nimnul's place and wait until he would leave with nothing inside one's stomach.

The Rangers assembled in the dining-room with the exception of the team's inventress. While Monty and Dale got the food out of the kitchen, Chip offered, "Gadget's not up yet, shall I go and get her?"

"Uh, no, mate," Monty said, "let th' sheila sleep. I found 'er in 'er workshop early this mornin'. She'd fallen asleep at th' workbench, an' I brought 'er ta bed. Dunno when she'll be up 'n runnin' again."

"Maybe the smell of your coffee wakes her up," Dale supposed.

"I don't think anythin' could wake 'er up," Monty said, "unless ya blow up th' tree."

Chip sat down at the table. "That means we'll have to go without her again."

Monty placed a plate with flapjacks stacked three times as high as Zipper onto the table. "I'm afraid yes."

"Well, at least we've got a few more who can pilot the Rangerplane, right, Monty?"

"I'm afraid no," Monty replied. "When I found 'er, she was surrounded by 'alf the Rangerplane, an' I don't think the other half will be able ta fly."

"Oh great," Chip said. "How shall we get to Nimnul's place now?"

"I can try ta drive th' Rangermobile," Monty suggested. "Jes' need ta get used t' everyone drivin' on th' wrong side 'ere. Oh, right," he suddenly rememberd, "th' Rangermobile is outta th' game, too, until Gadget gets th' bloomin' sand outta th' fan motor."

Dale laughed. "Yeah, that chase on the beach of Coney Island was fun. The Rangermobile against four miniature monster trucks."

"Too right, mate," Monty agreed, "that was one bonzer bash!"

"But it cost us half of our vehicle pool," Chip remarked, "and since last night, the other half is useless, too. Which means we'll have to walk." He looked at Zipper. "At least one of us has got wings of his own to fly."

Zipper mentioned that he could use that natural advantage of his to scout the building and search for obstacles.

"That'd be useful, Zipper," Chip said. "I don't trust these old buildings."

After breakfast, the team of four left the Rescue Rangers Headquarters and headed back to the house in which Nimnul had installed his recent hideout. They decided to sneak in somewhere on the rear side, also because it would most probably be there that Nimnul himself would enter and exit. And indeed, when they reached the courtyard, the crazy scientist came running out of the back door and jumped into a rusty white van. The four Rangers hid behind an empty cardboard box until he had driven out of sight, and then Chip motioned his three fellows to go in.

Zipper flew ahead and up the stairs to look out for anything inconvenient. The stairs themselves were fairly complete, a few railings were missing, but it was possible and not too difficult to get upstairs even for rodents, also because they didn't put nearly as much weight onto the stairs as a human would, reducing the danger of breaking through the old and potentially fragile wood. Nothing else was in the Rangers' way up either. Apparently, Nimnul did not count on them finding him this time.

It didn't take them long to reach the top floor and the old abandoned office which served as a makeshift lair for Nimnul. Boxes of many sorts were stacked up on the sides of the room, giving the impression that he intended to move on as soon as he would accomplish whatever his plan was. The destructive device which the Rangers had discovered the evening before sat on a desk in the middle of the room, concealed in its ironically present-like case.

"An' what shall we do with it now, Chipper?" Monty asked.

"Well," Chip answered, "this is another moment that I wish Gadget was here. She'd probably modify it and change its effect into something that works against Nimnul rather than for him. But since she's not with us..."

"...we'll rip that blinkin' thing apart!" Monty announced and raced up the desk with Zipper flying after him.

"Hey," Dale shouted, "leave somethin' for me!" He climbed after the two.

Chip shrugged. "Oh well, this is the best we can do now," and followed his teammates.

On top of the desk, he found Monty leaning against the case, saying, "Nice ta meet ya, Chipper. Ya don't 'appen ta carry a crowbar with ya?"

Before Chip could answer, the Rangers heard heavy steps on the stairs, and seconds later, the door flew wide open. Nimnul was back. "I forgot my money. Every once in a while, even a criminal genius like me has to buy things honestly." Under his breath, he muttered, "Especially from those who are more powerful than myself, even if I don't like to accept this." As he glanced around the room seeking his wallet, he spotted the Rangers. "What?! These pesky rodents again? With MARCO? Wait, you..."

The Rangers didn't have enough time to escape before Nimnul grabbed them and tossed them into a large flask which he sealed with a cork. "Good luck getting out of it. You won't fit through that little hole in the cork. You won't even make it up the flask. I had some of my Super Extremely Unadhesive Soft Soap in it before, and I didn't clean it afterwards." After having retrieved his wallet, Nimnul left the makeshift lab again.

Chip looked up to the cork. "At least we don't suffocate in here."

Monty read out loud the letters written on the glass with permanent marker. "S.E.U.S.S. That blighter's got one wicked humor, fellas."

At first, Dale was unable to stand in the soap puddle which was left on the bottom of the flask, but then he managed to do some spectacular moves on it. "Hey, that stuff's sure slippery! Look here, Chipper!" Dale set himself into a spin and spun straight into his long-time friend.

"Ow! Dale!" Chip shouted. "What do you think you're doing here?"

"That soap is more slippery than the oil stains in Gadget's workshop," Dale said.

Chip touched the inside of the glass. "The whole flask is coated with soap." Then he had an idea. "Wait! We can at least try to get rid of the cork if the upper end is covered with soap, too. Zipper, can you try to push the cork out?"

Zipper flew to the top of the flask and pushed against the cork, but to no avail, the cork didn't move the slightest bit.

"No soap up there?" Chip sighed. "Now we need a good plan to get out of this thing."

"What if we tip it over an' roll over the edge o' th' desk?" Monty proposed. "The glass'll break when we 'it th' floor, an' we'll be free."

"Free, but severely injured," Chip criticized. "I don't like taking such a high risk."

Zipper asked if Chip had any better plan. "I'm working on it," he replied.

"Ya'd better come up with somethin' before Nimnul's back," Monty said and pointed out of the window. "Look what ya can see from 'ere."

Chip looked where Monty told him and saw one of New York City's most famous places, the Rockefeller Center with its huge illuminated Christmas tree. He realized what horrible things Nimnul could do with MARCO if he aimed it at that target. Now Chip needed a plan to save a lot more than just his friends.

But the great idea that would save the four Rangers refused to arrive, no matter how hard Chip racked his brains. And so, they still sat in the flask when darkness fell over the city. Nimnul had left the single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling of his lab turned off, so an eerie gloominess spread in the room. When suddenly something came flying in through the window, all four Rangers expected a bird of prey and tried their best to crawl to the far side of the flask, but didn't get far on the slippery soap.

The unknown flying object stopped in the air, then headed for the flask and flew around it. It came closer and shot something at the flask which stuck on the outside. To their surprise, the Rangers identified it as a pair of tiny suction cups. "Gadget," Chip whispered, and as he and the others looked closely, they recognized the shape of the Rangerplane which carefully lifted up the flask with them inside and laid it onto the side before it landed on the desk.

Barely visible in the darkness, Gadget jumped off the Rangerplane, put her goggles back onto her head, and went to the flask in which her friends sat and stared at her. "I'll have you out of there in a jiffy!" she announced. She looked up and down the flask, ran her hands over the surface, and finally took a tiny hammer out of a pocket of her coveralls and hit the glass with only little force. The flask broke in half right where Gadget had hit it, and the four formerly trapped Rangers were free again. Gadget welcomed them with a warm smile that almost shone in the dark lab.

Dale was the first to come out of the flask. "Wowie-zowie, how'd ya do that, Gadget?"

"Golly," Gadget replied, "this flask model from this manufacturer often tends to break right there if the right force is applied. Of course, there's no guarantee that this'll work, but it did work this time."

Chip came right after his friend. "Gadget! What are you doing here?"

"I'm saving you guys. Apparently."

"No, I mean, why are you here? You locked yourself away yesterday and this morning, we thought something was wrong, and now you're here..."

"I'll tell you," Gadget said, "although I can't tell you much. Since I lost my father, Christmas wasn't a time for me to be happy. I spent most of my Christmas time alone the last two years as I didn't have anyone to share this time with. And this year will be my third Christmas without my father, so I felt the loneliness come back. But earlier tomorrow, after you left on this case, I realized that I wasn't alone anymore. I've got you guys now, and you're almost like a family to me. Especially you, Monty, you've always been a kind of uncle for me."

"Crikey, thank ya, Gadget luv."

"Well, when you weren't back by noon, I began to worry what might have happened to you. I finished putting the Rangerplane back together with its upgrades and flew to the park. It took me a while to find you, but here I am."

"And how did you find us?" Chip wondered.

Gadget pointed out to the fire escape. "Do you see these aluminum brackets out there?" Two shiny rails were mounted on the railing, right where Nimnul had placed MARCO the previous evening, Chip remembered. "I figured that there's no way they'd belong there on a building that'll soon be demolished, also because they're too new. I also took into consideration that there had to be some weird science behind what you had told me, the weirdest scientist I know is Professor Nimnul, and so I had to look around for any potential hideout of his. All in all, this place was way up on my list. Okay, guys, let's fly back home!"

"Waitaminit, lass," Monty said after crawling out of the flask. "'aven't ya fergotten somethin'?"

"Why, what should I have forgotten?"

"Nimnul's big present fer th' city."

Gadget took a closer look at the parcel. "Gee Willikers, that's a big present! What is it? Oh, right, you're not supposed to know what it is, since it's a present and all..."

Dale said, "But we know what it is. It's an action toy that melts ice, destroys lightbulbs, an' blows up trees."

Gadget rubbed her hands. "Not for long anymore," she said. "Zipper, I need light. Chip, Dale, Monty, help me open this thing. And I'll probably need tools later on."

Within two and a half minutes, MARCO lay uncovered and with its casing removed in Nimnul's now illuminated lair, and Gadget had examined the unusual technology the best she could. "Alright, I could just unsolder a few wires, but that'd be too easy, and it'd be fixed too quickly. I could also discharge the battery, but that'd only buy us so much time."

"What about reversin' the polarity?" Dale suggested.

"Golly, Dale," Gadget replied, "that might work in television, but not in real life! No, I think I know what I can do. I still don't understand this apparatus wholly since it can't be explained with any normal science, but I've got some ideas which should work."

"Guys," Monty warned his friends, "we'd better duck an' cover when Nimnul turns that thing on!"

While Monty and the chipmunks helped Gadget apply her modifications, Zipper sat in the courtyard and waited for Nimnul to return. When the old van finally came, he flew back to the lab just to see the other Rangers put the cover back over the wicked machine. He alerted them anyway, and when Nimnul entered his lab, he found the lights out and his invention seemingly untouched. The flask was broken, but he decided to worry about that when he was done wreaking havoc over the city. The Rangers sat aboard the Rangerplane their own hiding-place behind the piles of boxes and watched as Nimnul replaced the broken main coil with a new one. "The connectors of the coil are about the only thing I didn't change," Gadget whispered. "He won't notice anything until he fires the machine up."

"And here we go again," Nimnul said, turned off the light, and carried MARCO out onto the fire escape. "They say when the dress rehearsal fails miserably, and the dress rehearsal did fail miserably yesterday, then the premiere will be great!"

"He's aimin' at th' Rockefeller Center!" Monty noticed.

"Are you sure?" Gadget replied.

Nimnul did a few adjustments and then pushed the trigger button. For a second, he left his hand lying on MARCO's metal casing before he removed it with a scream of pain. "AAAAH! Hot! What's wrong now?" He ran to a sink to cool his hand, and steam rose up when he poured water over it.

Gadget giggled. "I recalibrated a few frequencies and shortened the range dramatically. That thing heated up itself."

The professor returned to the fire escape. "Don't make me angrier than I am already!" He went on operating MARCO and trying to figure out what went wrong.

"Showtime!" Gadget shouted out and launched the Rangerplane. Zipper flew and switched the light on again which caught Nimnul's attention before the Rangerplane did the same, hovering in the middle of the room. "What the..." He heaved MARCO off of its brackets, carried it back into the lab, and aimed at the Rangerplane.

"I 'ope yer calculations are right, Gadget luv," Monty said.

"Don't worry, Monty," Gadget tried to calm him, "I calculated this three times, always with the same result."

Nimnul hit the trigger again. This time, the beam went backwards and right through his body. It left him unscathed, but the mirror over the sink reflected it, so did two of the few remaining window-panes, and the beam's final target was a pile of cardboard boxes, all labeled S.E.U.S.S. The vessels in these boxes exploded, made the boxes burst, and uncharged their greasy content onto the lab floor and even as far as onto the stairs. The impact of the boxes on the wooden floor made the handset fall off of Nimnul's illegally installed phone.

"Thanks for pointing out that there are no books in these boxes," Gadget said, "and what's in there instead."

"You're welcome," the guys replied.

"And now comes my favorite part," Gadget announced. "I reconfigured MARCO to call a preset on this third shot, a very special one."

Nimnul tried to shoot once more, but although he pushed the trigger, nothing seemed to happen until he noticed the free line signal from the phone. A male voice answered, "5th precinct, Sergeant Spinelli speaking? Hello?"

Gadget grinned. "Originally, I wanted to pick up the handset with the Rangerplane, but this did it, too. MARCO emitted a dial tone and called the police. I expect them to have traced the call in a few seconds."

"Spinelli?" Nimnul remembered the name. "Hey, that's the cops! I need to get lost!" Without taking anything with him, he tried to run for the door and the stairs, but slipped and tumbled down. He eventually managed to recover, but when he stepped out into the courtyard, officers Kirby and Muldoon were already there to arrest him.

Satisfied with the outcome of their most recent case, the Rangers flew back home. When Chip, Dale, Monty, and Zipper entered the main room, they couldn't believe what they saw. Everywhere were Christmas decorations, many of them beautifully illuminated by countless small LEDs. And in the middle of the room stood a rodent-sized Christmas tree made of green cardboard with tiny light bulbs which resembled candles.

"Golly," the four male Rangers said in unison.

"You like it?" Gadget asked coyly. "I made the baubles on the tree out of balls from broken ball bearings and gave them a coating of red varnish."

"You made all this?" Chip had known Gadget since that year's summer, but he didn't know she could build things like these.

"Yes, I thought you might like some seasonal decorations in here."

"Excuse me, Gadget," Chip said, "but there's something I'd like to add to this." He left for his room and came back with the tinfoil star. "Can you place this upon the tree, Zipper?"

The fly nodded and mounted the star on top of the tree.

"Now it's perfect," Monty said. "Y'know what this star reminds me of?"

Chip and Dale prepared mentally for yet another tale from Monty's adventurous past, Gadget asked, "No, what does it remind you of?"

Monty smiled and laid an arm around his best friend's daughter. "It reminds me o' you, Gadget luv, our little bright star."

**The End**


End file.
